Gates: Larger workforce crucial to acquisition reform

The Defense Department will convert thousands of contractor employees to full-time government employees and hire a large number of additional acquisition professionals to improve the way it purchases military products and systems, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.

April 6, 2009

A key part of the reform effort will be to ensure that conventional modernization goals are tied to the actual and prospective capabilities of known future adversaries, rather than what might be technologically feasible for a potential adversary given unlimited time and resources, Gates said.On the matter of realistic program costs, Gates said that the department must “constantly guard against so-called requirements creep, validate the maturity of technology at milestones, fund programs to independent cost estimates, and demand stricter contract terms and conditions.”Gates said in his briefing that he welcomes the initiative taken by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the proposed Weapons System Acquisition Reform Act of 2009. The legislation would compel the DOD to address problems early in the acquisition process.If the reforms are to succeed, DOD must show that it is capable of “acting on these principles by making tough decisions and sticking to them going forward,” Gates said.

The Defense Department will convert thousands of contractor employees to full-time government employees and hire a large number of additional acquisition professionals as part of an initiative to improve the way it purchases military products and systems, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.

DOD will convert 11,000 contractor employees to full-time government employees and hire 9,000 more government acquisition professionals by 2015, Gates said in a press briefing on the DOD’s fiscal 2010 budget. In the near term, the department plans to hire 4,100 new acquisition professionals in 2010, he said.

Maintaining the United States’ technological and conventional edge will be possible only with “a dramatic change in how we acquire military equipment,” Gates said.

He also laid out a three-step reform plan improve DOD acquisition. Under the plan, Gates said his department would strive to:

Consistently demonstrate the commitment and leadership to stop programs that significantly exceed their budget or which spend limited tax dollars to buy more capability than the nation needs.
Ensure requirements are reasonable and technology is adequately mature to allow the department to successfully execute the programs.
Estimate realistic program costs, provide program stability for the programs it initiates, adequately staff the government’s acquisition team, and provide disciplined and constant oversight.

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